Another Issue Comes Out: Gay Rights Policy Voting in Recent U.S. Presidential Elections

Drawing from the theory of policy voting, this study examines the impact of opinions about gay rights on voting for presidential candidates. Qualitative analysis of the major party platforms and candidate campaign rhetoric from the six presidential elections held between 1988 and 2008 indicates that Democratic and Republican presidential candidates began openly expressing opposing positions on gay rights issues in 1992. Quantitative analysis of public opinion shows that, starting in 1992 and continuing through 2008, gay rights issues became more salient to the public, and opinions about gay rights began to exert a significant effect on vote choice. The study concludes with a discussion of the partisan forces that shaped the electoral significance of gay rights issues during the period from 1988 to 2008 and speculation about the role of gay rights issues in shaping future partisan electoral strategy.     

乡村选举中政治冷漠的成因——以成本-收益为视角的分析

政治冷漠，是一个与政治参与相对应的概念，即在政治活动和政治行为中表现出消极的政治态度，不参加政治生活，对于政治问题和政治活动的冷漠和不关心。一言以概之，就是政治不参与。在现今中国农村，虽然农民的政治素质在整体上有了很大的提高，但是由于种种因素的影响，政治冷漠现象在一定程度上还存在着。文章论述了乡村选举中的政治冷漠现象，并从成本一收益的角度分析其原因，提出发展农村经济、加强制度建设和降低选举成本等建议，旨在提高村民的政治热情，以使其通过长期参与选举等政治活动逐渐明白社会问题的症结和自身政治利益所在，从而产生应有的政治热情，减少选举中的政治冷漠行为。     

从"性别差距"看美国女性在选举中的地位

随着女性参政意识的增强,美国女性逐渐在选民中占居多数,大选中的"性别差距"引起了人们的注意。自1980年以来,"性别差距"在美国历次大选中表现明显,其存在的根本原因在于男女在政治、经济和社会地位等方面的不平等,致使女性对一些问题的看法与男性有所差异,因此在大选中也显示出了差距。对"性别差距"的研究从各个侧面揭示了女性选举的特点及其选票的分布情况,对美国总统候选人的竞选活动或执政者的策略制定都有很高的参考价值。     

论华中抗日根据地基层政权的民主选举—以乡选为中心的考察

为从根本上改造基层政权,中国共产党领导下的华中抗日根据地广泛开展了一场轰轰烈烈的民主选举运动。根据地颁布了一系列法令、条例,使选举规范化;人民群众在实践中也充分发挥智慧创造了适合自己的选举方式。选举体现了广泛性、平等性、真实性的特点。这一运动使基层政权性质彻底改变,为争取抗战乃至整个新民主主义革命的胜利提供了重要保证。     

农村居民参与村委会选举的心理倾向研究

本研究依据村民作为社会行为主体的主动性和独立性,将村民参与村委会选举的心理倾向归纳为四种模式,即动员式心理模式、依附式心理模式、自觉式心理模式和热衷式心理模式,并根据调查结果统计和分析每一种心理倾向的特征,在此基础上对村民行为的理性做了一定的剖析,结论认为村民心理倾向均是一定理性层次的体现。     

村民自治的公共选择研究

选举制度是民主制度的核心 ,选举的得失直接关系到民主的真实性。选举过程是选民和候选人的互动过程 ,他们为了各自的利益而进行角逐。必须以选举理论指导村民选举的实践     

构建科学的教坛新秀评选体系

青年教师是高校教学科研的主力军,培养和造就一批高素质的青年教师队伍是推进高校素质教育的一项重要的战略任务,但他们中有许多人存在人文精神缺失及修养不足的问题,对高校的改革与发展产生了消极影响。为切实加强青年教师队伍建设,高校在广大青年教师中开展“教坛新秀”评选活动,以此激励广大青年教师的荣誉感和责任感,促进师德水平和教育教学质量水平的提高,意义深远。从评选理念出发,对教坛新秀的评选指标、评选条件、评选方法做了微观定位,以期为构建科学的教坛新秀评选体系提供参考。     

Wiki-worthy: collective judgment of candidate notability

The use of socio-technical data to predict elections is a growing research area. We argue that election prediction research suffers from under-specified theoretical models that do not properly distinguish between ‘poll-like’ and ‘prediction market-like’ mechanisms understand findings. More specifically, we argue that, in systems with strong norms and reputational feedback mechanisms, individuals have market-like incentives to bias content creation toward candidates they expect will win. We provide evidence for the merits of this approach using the creation of Wikipedia pages for candidates in the 2010 US and UK national legislative elections. We find that Wikipedia editors are more likely to create Wikipedia pages for challengers who have a better chance of defeating their incumbent opponent and that the timing of these page creations coincides with periods when collective expectations for the candidate's success are relatively high.     

Who is leading the campaign charts? Comparing individual popularity on old and new media

Attention in the mass media is seen as crucial for electoral success. However, most ordinary candidates hardly get any attention in the news. With social media outlets becoming ever more popular, the question is whether the overall asymmetry in attention for candidates still holds today. Do candidates who dominate the traditional media during the campaign also dominate the social media? Or can candidates make up for a lack of mass media coverage by attracting attention on these new media platforms? This paper aims to answer these questions by pairing Twitter activity and Twitter popularity with newspaper attention for a large number of individual candidates in the 2014 Belgian election campaign. We expand the normalization versus equalization debate by not only looking at how much a new medium is used, but also at its success in terms of popularity and audience reach. Our findings show that the two platforms are indeed related, mainly because a small political elite dominates both old and new media. Twitter popularity and Twitter activity (albeit to a lesser extent) are higher among powerful politicians. We elaborate on why these findings are so much in line with the normalization hypothesis.     

论逐步扩大直接选举的范围

选举就是选民选择自己的代理人的过程。过多层次的间接选举不利于提高代表机关的代表性。要提高我国的政治文明程度,人大制度就有必要与时俱进,朝着使广大基层群众能享有更多知情权、表达权的方向,朝着高层领导更易于了解基层实情的方向进行改革和完善,在条件成熟的时候逐步扩大直接选举的范围。